About Time
by Laputa11
Summary: At the age of 21, Santana discovers she can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in her own life. Her decision to make her world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think. Based on the movie About Time. Brittana.
1. Chapter 1

I always knew we were a fairly odd family. First there was me. Too short, too skinny, too tan. My mom was lovely, but not like other moms. There was something solid about her. Something rectangular, busy and unsentimental. Her fashion icon was the queen. Dad, well, he was more normal. He always seemed to have time on his hands. After giving up teaching university students on his 50th birthday, he was eternally available for a leisurely chat or letting me win at table tennis. And, finally there was Rachel. My sister. In a household of sensible jackets and haircuts there was this, well, what can I call her- nature thing. With her elfin eyes, her purple t-shirts and eternally bare feet. She was then, and still is to me, about the most wonderful think in the world.

All in all it was a pretty good childhood. Full of repeated rhythms and patterns. By the time I was 21, we were still having tea on the beach every single day. Skipping stones and eating sandwiches, summer and winter, no matter what the weather. And every Friday night a film, no matter what the weather.

And then once a year, the dreaded New Year's Eve party…

I walked downstairs in an outfit that Kit Kat picked out for me. I was wearing a tight fitted black dress that to my displeasure and Rachel's entertainment exposed a great deal of cleavage. As I reach the bottom of the stairs, I am immediately greeted by my best friend, Quinn.

"Lopez! I've been looking for you everywhere! Come on, it's almost midnight."

Now the difference between me and Quinn is confidence. Without asking I know that she knows exactly who she's going to kiss at midnight, while I'm still not sure if I chose the right shoes to wear with this outfit. It's not that I'm bad with girls…

I'm just not good.

As we make our way to the living room, Quinn accidently runs into a table and successfully knocks over three drinks that I know I will have to clean up in the morning. When we make it to the living room, Quinn lets go of my hand and wanders off into the crowd, probably looking for tonight's conquest. I awkwardly stand there in the middle of the living room with my hands clasped in front of me and I hear a soft giggle to the side of me. I turn around and see a cute brunette that went to high school with me bashfully looking me up and down. I immediately begin to fidget as she turns and introduces herself as Elaine from 9th grade Algebra. Before I could tell her my name the room collectively begins counting down the clock to midnight. Taking a quick scan of the room I see Quinn getting a head start with some redhead against the coat closet.

Six…

I see Rachel talking to a guy who is clearly older than she is. He might've actually graduated a year ahead of me, so I make a mental note to ask her about it later.

Three…

I look next to me and notice that Elaine is looking her lips and staring at mine for good measure. She begins to lean in and I look at her lips as she gets closer to me.

One…

Panic consumes me and I do the unspeakable. I shake her hand.

"Happy New Years!" I say lamely, as I shake her hand way too aggressively.

She politely smiles and wishes me a Happy New Year and walks away disappointed.

Shit.

XXX

So I woke up the next morning hungover, embarrassed, and not realizing it was the day that would change my life forever. As I basked in my misfortune, I heard my door open and the soft patter of Rachel's bare feet.

"Get up stupid," I hear her say as she slowly climbs in my bed and gently lies on my back, "shit happens, but that doesn't mean you get to mope around all day. Sexy pajamas, by the way."

I'm not in the mood to hear her make fun of my stripped pajamas so I climb out of bed and usher her out of my room as I get dressed. While I'm putting on my sweater, my phone buzzes with a text from my dad asking me to come to his office. Not thinking twice about it, I continue to get dressed and leave to see him.

My dad's office is more of a library with selective seating. Reading has always been his passion and he tried and failed to encourage Kat and I to share that passion. When I walked in I smiled at my dad who looked anxiety to see me. He still dresses like a professor much to my mom's enjoyment, but has the personality of a student.

"Hi, dad."

"Santana, sit down, sit down."

"How formal of you," I smile at him to show that I'm teasing him. He's being so weird that for a second I think I'm in trouble for something. It's like being called to the principal's office and you stress yourself out trying to figure out what you did wrong only to find out your mom brought your lunch up to the school.

"I'm a little nervous. You see, I had this exact same conversation with my father when I was your age so I'm trying to tread lightly and be as delicate as possible."

"Well, whenever you're ready! It all seems very mysterious," I say, anticipating whatever the punchline is to this joke.

"Santana, um, there's no easy way to say this. The first born in our family has always…this is going to sound strange. Be prepared for strange. The first born in our family has always been able to travel through time," he stops talking and just stares at me with the most serious expression. I let the silence go on, waiting for him to laugh or continue talking.

I look around the room and then back at my dad, "this is a weird joke."

"I'm serious, it isn't a joke."

"So you're saying that you and abuela…can travel through time?"

"Absolutely."

"You still do?"

"Absolutely."

I begin to look towards his office door and I think he can sense that I'm about to call my mom in here to help assess his mental health. He puts his hand up to stop me and says, "it sounds dramatic but I can only go places I was already at and can actually remember. Now, you can't kill Hitler or sleep with Helen of Troy…unfortunately."

"Ew, okay, stop. If it's true, which it isn't-"

"Although, it is-"

"Although, it isn't, but if it was, which it's not-"

"Which it is-"

"Which it isn't, but if it was, how would I actually…"

"How is the easy bit. You go into a dark place, like a big cupboard, then you clench your fist and think of the moment you're going to then you've got yourself there."

Again. Silence.

This is hands down the weirdest joke he has ever told. I'm as impressed as I am scared for him.

"Wow."

He smiles at me and says," Wow, is a good reaction. I think my initial response was 'Fuucckk' but it was the 70s."

"This is obviously a joke."

"Why would I lie to something that I'm particularly fond of?" I don't know what it is about the way he is looking at me, but it almost makes me trust him. I mean I trust him with everything, just…maybe not this.

As I stand to leave my dad is still smiling at me like he's relieved he was finally able to share this moment with me.

"I'm going to go," I tell him, "and after I get back from clutching my fist in my closet, you're going to be in so much trouble."

"Well, let's see, shall we? Oh, and try and do something interesting."

I look over my shoulder as I walk out the door, "so much trouble!"

I make my way up to my room still laughing about how strange that conversation was. My mom is usually the weird one in the family, but something about the way my dad was acting makes me think that he was serious. As I lay on my bed my eyes keep flickering towards my closet. Eventually, I groan and get up and walk towards it. I get into the closet and do as my dad told me. The moment I decided where I wanted to go, images of the last 24 hours flashed through my mind as though they were memories. I felt a rush of adrenaline and as I opened my eyes I heard the faint sound of music. Stepping out of the cupboard, I look down and realize that I was dressed in the outfit that Rachel had picked out for me to wear for the New Year's Eve Party.

Holy Shit.

I walk downstairs and it feels like an out of body experience. I can't believe this is actually happening to me. Right on que, Quinn meets me at the bottom of the stairs and begins to drag me through the crowd. I notice the table of drinks that she knocked over last night and grab her arm to stop her before she makes a mess. I smile to myself knowing that I won't have to clean that up when I get back to present time. When Quinn leaves me in the living room and I look around the room to find Elaine.

Five…

I see her smiling at me a few people over and I make my way towards her.

Two…

And before the clock strikes midnight, I kiss her with everything that I should have given her yesterday.

My adrenaline is high and when I pull away she is smiling and blushing furiously at me. After stumbling over a few words she bashfully says, "Thanks, Santana."

I smile and make my way towards the closet upstairs. As I step into it I know that this talent is easily going to be the best thing that has ever happened to me or my love life.


	2. Chapter 2

"What about the butterfly effect? Like, is it possible I can somehow alter the future?" As soon as I returned I ran to my dad's office to get some answers. I'm still overwhelmed about the experience but I'm over the moon that I got to redo the New Year's party.

"To my knowledge we haven't changed anything historically in the past or future. Did you go back and do anything interesting?"

I begin to blush at the memory and then nod, "I went back to the New Year's Eve party and kissed a girl at midnight."

"That's great! Did you get her number?" As he asked the question the grin fell from my face as I realized my mistake. How the hell did I forget to get her number?

"Seriously, Santana? You went all that way and forgot to get the girls number? I raised you better than that."

I let out a groan of embarrassment, "You said you still go back in time. What do you go back to do?"

"For me, it's reading. I go back and re‐read novels and find copies of all the great books ever written. You can't go back in hopes of bringing someone back to life or getting rich. Money will ruin you, and besides, I've never met a generally happy rich person."

As he spoke, I weighed my options. I could use this to do great things, you know? I'm going to law school soon and I could use this to help with cases and change people's lives! Which is why I was shocked when I told my dad, "Honestly…I figured I'd just use it to get a girlfriend."

My dad looked at me without judgment, "Woah…that's massive." He moved to sit next to me on the couch and out is arm around me, "well, I hope you find what you are looking for. Just do me a favor and don't tell Rachel. I love her to death, but she'd probably want you to take her to see the original Funny Girl production. So wasteful."

XXX

My journal to finding love officially began two weeks later when Rachel's best friend Marley arrived to stay with us for the summer. She's everything you could ever hope for. She's a brunette with bright blue eyes, and a gorgeous smile. She is incredibly kind and beautiful. Every time I see her I believe I'm in love. Every time Rachel catches me staring at her she rolls her eyes, but I think she's just upset that her idiot boyfriend isn't here to give her attention. I figured it would be a great idea to invite Quinn, you know, to make me look good when we had to do anything athletic.

I was wrong.

The entire time we played tennis; Quinn pelted me in the back of the head or hit the ball into the net. There was no in between. She also supplied no moral support.

We were all sitting outside tanning while my dad read a book in the shade. I was busy ready my own magazine when I hear Marley ask, "Hey, Santana, could you put some lotion on my back?" And all I can do is stare.

Words, Santana. Find words.

"Absolutely," I begin to scramble and make my way towards her and give Quinn the finger as she begins to laugh to herself. I decide to straddle Marley as she lays on her stomach, flipping through her magazine and gossiping with Rachel. I grab the sun screen and it feels like it's empty so I begin to shake it. I go to squeeze the bottle after one more shake and the cap falls off, covering her entire back with its contents. "Oh, my god!" I am mortified.

"I'm so sorry!" I get up and run towards the house and all I can hear is Quinn and Rachel's laughter echoing in the air. As I pass my dad, he face palms himself and let's out a sigh.

I ran all the way to my room and jumped in the closet, closed my eyes, and concentrated as images of the past flew through my mind.

When I opened my eyes I jumped out of the closet and ran outside, picked up my book and tried to act as cool as possible.

"Santana, could you put some lotion on my back?"

"Sure, just give me one second," I pretend that I'm trying to finish reading a page in my book and try and be as chill as possible. I close the book and calmly walk towards her, concentrating on my steps. I straddle her and take the cap off of the sun screen to avoid a disaster. I rub the lotion on my hand and then as gently as I can begin to rub it on her back. After a while, I begin massage her shoulders and she lets out a moan, "oh, Santana, that's so good."

I grinned at her reaction and looked up to see my dad giving me the thumbs up, "well, it's one of my special areas." Point one for Lopez.

XXX

Once we reached the end of the summer and it was time for Marley to head home I decided it was time to make my move. She leaves tomorrow morning and here I am standing in front of my bedroom mirror practicing what I'm going to say. Once I'm satisfied with my appearance I make my way down to the guess room and stare at the door nervously before finally knocking.

"Come in!" I take a deep breath before pushing the door open. Marley is sprawled out on her bed reading an old magazine, " oh, hey, Santana!"

"Hey, Marles," I make my way over to the bed and take a seat, "it's your last night and…can I ask you a question?" Why is this so difficult?

"Oh," she gives me a small frown and says, "wait, it isn't about love right? Rachel warned me. And it is the last night."

I'm going to fucking kill Rachel.

My face is beat red and I rush out a, "no," and I'm too embarrassed to make eye contact because my little sister twat swatted me before even stood a chance. Before I can get up and run out, Marley lifts my chin up so I'm looking at into her big beautiful eyes and says, "Oh, well it is the last night. You avoided all the emotions and commitment. Last night was a bad idea."

I'm in shock. She is actually encouraging me to do better next time. "So, last night is a bad idea?"

Her smile reaches her eyes as she nods bash fully, "yes, very."

I excuse myself and head straight to the cupboard and imagine going to her second week of staying her for the summer.

I find myself staring at Marley's do and I knock with confidence. "Come in!" I open the door and decide to sit right next to her on the bed to show that I mean business, "oh, hey, Santana!"

I smile and her and I know I'm looking at her like I'm in love. Because that's what it feels like. It feels so very much like love, "hey, Marley, I just need to tell you that…I've fallen in love with you. Your hair‐even if you had none I would adore you. So…what do you think?"

Silence engulfs the room before she smiles at me and leans over to grab my hand and says, "Ask me again on my last night."

You've got to be kidding me. My smile falls and my eyes drop to our entwine hands, "your last night?" She nods her head vigorously, "of course, why didn't I think of that. I'll‐I'll try again your last night."

At that I stand up and wish her a good night and walk to my room, making sure to flick off Rachel's room when I pass it. Asshole.

Lesson Number One: All the time traveling in the world can't make someone love you.


End file.
